We were able to get my grandmother home from the hospital the day before I was supposed to head to Manila. There was still no electricity, so we were taking turns fanning her. It was very hot and humid. I was able to get Ron-Ron (one of the little brats) to fan her for a short while, in exchange for a coin.
The next day, Auntie Baby and I headed to Manila on the Victory Liner. Zaldy was unable to meet us at the bus station in Manila, so we took a cab. But he was able to meet us on the way to the hotel. The service was mediocre, and the front desk clerks were snooty. But it was cheaper than my last hotel.
Auntie Baby and I had a lot of errands to do. I had to do some paperwork for my new real-estate lawyer, like signing a power of attorney, which had to be notarized in the Philippines or in a Philippine consulate. Since it would be inconvenient for me to fly to San Francisco, we had to hurry up and do it in Manila. Well, notarizing a document in the Philippines is a whole lot complicated than in the US. The notaries actually *read* the document as though they were lawyers. And the notary cost is a percentage of whatever amount is written in the document.
After that was done, we went to Robinson Plaza, a mall near the hotel to mail the documents to my lawyer and to do some shopping for pasalubong.
Later, Uncle Larry came by with his daughter Winnie, his daughter-in-law Malou, and the kids Leanne, Arianne and Mik. They took us to the Mall of Asia, part of which Winnie designed. Winnie is an architect. We had lunch at a restaurant called Fish & Co and it looked like another restaurant in the US with theme artifacts all around near the ceiling. The restaurant is part of Winnie's design, but the owner didn't use Winnie's contractors, so Winnie was not happy with some of the detail work.
The next day, Auntie Baby and I took a cab to the airport. We said goodbye at the curb and she took a cab back to the Victory Liner station.
The flight back was fairly uneventful but very tiring because I was short on sleep. But when I got to SeaTac airport, I had the misfortune of being randomly picked for inspection. And just my luck, I had to get a young woman who seemed to be new to the job. She had never seen the native candies that I took with me. She had to show them to the inspector in the next booth and he even said that they taste very good. Then she called in a supervisor, who smiled at me and said the foods in my bags were okay. Still, she asked me so many questions about my job history and my personal finances and how I could afford this trip. Most people, when they hear that I've worked at Microsoft, already figure that I'm well off. This woman continued to ask probing questions right there in public! For crying out loud, I was a woman travelling alone! She could have just put me in danger of mugging if someone of questionable character was nearby and listening in! And what did my finances have to do with agriculture?!? I got worse treatment in a US airport than I did in the Philippines!
After about an hour, she told me I could put my things back in my bags and go. I was so pissed. I grew up under martial law in the Philippines during the Marcos regime; this is what it feels like to be under martial law.
No comments:
Post a Comment